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Everything It Takes
"Everything It Takes" - a Path of Legends short story © 2019 Ash Knight (Samurai), all rights reserved. Disclaimer: This story may contain language, violence, and other mature themes. Terms to Know Just in case you don't have any previous knowledge of the Path of Legends universe, I'm including this. * Defenders - immortal beings with eternal youth created by the Four Masters (four gods) to protect the Elixir, which holds all the power in the universe. Since the Elixir was spilled all over Samurath, the Defenders were needed to ensure its safety. Of course, they ended up falling into an eternity of war instead, since Sunslayer (one of the Masters) gave them evil, so they haven't been doing much Elixir-protecting. Most of the characters are Defenders, though you will run into star elves as well. * Angels - one of the three types of Defenders * Titans - another type of Defender * Syrens - another type of Defender * Star elves - the sworn enemies of the Defenders - at least, they're supposed to be. There are a few living on Samurath, as unwelcome as they are most places. * Empowered - a Defender or star elf with magic/powers * Ancient Kingdom - the government that rules over Samurath, dominated by Angels * Regime - the Ancient Kingdom's former rival; defeated in the Titanic Wars and pushed across the sea to the mysterious East * Daimyo - historically, a feudal lord, and the same definition holds true here Chapter One Scarlet Fields Moontas, circa 7000 XI I just remember how peaceful everything seemed before the war came to us. We'd heard about it, of course - everyone had. Everyone - except the younger children, maybe, because no one had the heart to tell them that there was suffering in the world - knew about the territorial conflicts in the Starsand Desert between however many daimyo they had over there. The Angelic Wars, they were called. And everyone knew about the recently ended Titanic Wars, and everyone knew about the Empowered War. The Empowered War. That was the big one, and the one my mother had seemed to be the most worried about. The Titanic Wars were over, and the Regime had retreated across the Atlas Ocean, so no one had to worry about being attacked by Titan warriors anymore. The Angelic Wars, like I said, were all the way in the Starsand Desert, so no daimyo in Moontas was going to send any samurai there. The Angelic Wars were Hirata's problem, not ours. But the Empowered War... That was everyone's problem. Personally, I understand where the Ancient Kingdom is coming from with their fear of Empowered - anyone with magic that strong, or magic in general, is a major threat to those in charge, and if I were the Shogun, I would definitely be worried about being overthrown. But how about instead of persecuting Empowered and starting a war over it, you turn them into allies? That's what I would've done. But it's never that simple for Angels, and every time they experience a minor inconvenience, they have to kill something. Anything that scares them, they have to destroy it. Calling them "Angels" is ironic, really. There's nothing angelic about them - they're always picking fights and declaring war, and honestly, I'd say they're worse than Titans when it comes to being battle-hungry. Here they were, tearing up all of Samurath with the Empowered War, and the threat of being caught in the fight - or called off to war by one's daimyo - was greater than ever. But they were so far away, and though my mother continued to worry, sitting in a corner of the house with her writing, I felt at peace. I felt like the world was at peace, even though I knew it wasn't, because nothing could touch me. The Angels' swords were hundreds of miles away, and the rebels' blades couldn't hurt me. The Ancient Kingdom and Armistice clashed, and I knew they were clashing, but my world was peaceful, and that was all I cared about. "Come inside!" I called to my son, who was reading under a tree. "It's almost time to eat." "Okay, Dad," he replied, continuing to read. He would come eventually - he always had "one more page" or something, and while I would have made him come immediately when he was younger, he was seventeen now, so I was willing to give him a minute or two. Only that, though. No more. I went back inside, only to look out the window at him to make sure he was coming. He stood up a few moments later, the light of sunset highlighting the embers of red in his hair, and in that moment, he reminded me so much of his mother that a tear almost fell. Almost. I stopped it, because I wasn't going to cry. Not in front of my mother, who needed me to be strong more than anything else in this world. Like I said, I've only ever known peace outside of my samurai training - instead of to a battle, I lost Cedric's mother to the call of the open sea. To this day, I don't know what exactly made her abandon Cedric - he was only a child then - and I, but my guess is that she had been away from the ocean for too long. She never came back, not even for a visit, and sometimes I feared the worst - the logical part of me knew she was smart and could take care of herself, but the fearful, irrational part of me worried that she had gone to Atlantis. Atlantis makes the Starsand Desert look like a Zen garden. Cedric came in for dinner, and we talked amiably as we ate, though my mother seemed more anxious and fidgety than usual. She said very little and picked at her food, not taking a single bite of the fish I'd prepared. "Is everything all right?" Cedric asked. "You seem very worried." My mother hesitated before whispering, "Just a bad dream bothering me." "Do you want to talk about it?" I took her hand and met her eyes, wishing I could take all the worrying away. "That might help." "Just the war, Saiph," my mother said quietly. "Just the constant fighting..." She didn't say anything else for the entire meal, and Cedric and I fell into silence. Neither of us knew what to say, as neither of us had any sort of reputation being reassuring. There was no reason for my mother to worry about the war - logic proved that. Surely she knew we were unreachable here? That Daimyo Luka wouldn't send more samurai to the Southern Front? (to be continued) Category:Content (Samurai) Category:Stories